Same milk, but so many brands
Craig Prichard remembers when milk tasted very different from region to region. ‘‘Milk in Taranaki, where I grew up, was different to the milk in Napier.’’
The Massey associate professor, and expert in agriculture, says things like climate, pasture and production methods used to greatly change the taste profile. ‘‘That’s largely disappeared.’’
Milk is now ‘‘deconstructed’’ and put together in a homogenous way by Fonterra, which collects about 22 billion litres of milk every year, amounting to about 90 per cent of all milk produced.
‘‘Fonterra largely owns the New Zealand palette when it comes to milk.’’
Anchor is Fonterra’s bestknown brand, with generations of Kiwis having grown up on it. Budget brand Dairy Dale is a Fonterra brand, and Select, Cow & Gate and Signature Range are Goodman Fielder brands made using Fonterra-supplied milk.
While there are significant price differences between premium brands and budget brands, the milk itself is largely the same, Prichard says. ‘‘There are micro-differences. You will have to work very hard to identify them.’’
There is even very little difference in the taste of organic milk and non-organic milk, he says. ‘‘The term organic is very hard to nail down, and almost impossible to tell when it comes to taste.’’
Federated Farmers dairy chairman Chris Lewis used to drink milk from the vat but, since having kids, he buys pasteurised milk – light blue top for breakfast and dark blue for coffee.
The Waikato dairy farmer says he’s no expert on milk processing but he believes there’s very little difference in the different brands.
‘‘It will be pretty identical across the board. It doesn’t matter whether it’s Anchor or Homebrand, it’s all made in the same factory.’’
He chooses whichever brand is cheapest. ‘‘It’s a little bit naughty but, like everyone else, I’m price conscious.’’
As a dairy farmer of 23 years, he does not care what brand shoppers choose as long as they are buying milk. ‘‘I’m just stoked they’re choosing dairy over those nut juices.’’
At Countdown in Ponsonby, Auckland, the milk fridge contains more than 30 cows’ milk products from 11 brands, and that doesn’t include all the various sizes the bottles come in, or things like cream and buttermilk. Countdown’s online shopping store shows even more options.
From Homebrand dark blue to Anchor zero lacto ‘‘tummy friendly’’ trim blue, there is a milk on the market for all types.
Looking at three different dark blue top milk brands shows they all contain just one ingredient – milk. However, the way it is described varies.
Meadow Fresh contains ‘‘fresh homogenised milk’’, Homebrand contains ‘‘standardised, pasteurised, homogenised milk’’ and Anchor contains simply ‘‘milk’’.
A Countdown spokeswoman says brand owners like Goodman Fielder buy their milk from milk processers, and add value in a range of ways.
‘‘For example, the Anchor lightproof bottle protects the flavour of milk by stopping lightinduced oxidation, or Meadow Fresh’s permeate-free milk is less processed.’’
Its Countdown Select brand comes from the same suppliers. ‘‘So yes, in New Zealand all fresh milk effectively comes from the same place.’’
University of Auckland senior marketing lecturer Michael Lee says people who buy more expensive milk would be unlikely to know what they were getting beyond what was stated on the bottle. ‘‘It is the brand that is demanding the premium, not the product.’’
The milk market has come a long way since the days of unbranded glass bottles being delivered to doorsteps.
Lee describes three tiers of milk products: there’s the topshelf brands (literally) such as organic brands Lewis Road and Ka¯piti single farm and proteinspecific A2 milk. Then there’s the ‘‘mainstay’’ brands like Anchor and Meadow Fresh, and the nofrills brands put out by supermarkets.
Milk producers are heavily reliant on marketing because there is very little variation in milk produced in New Zealand. ‘‘The only way that you can command any sort of different price premium is through branding.’’
Milk branding is likely to evolve by taking another lead from the wine industry and promoting individual farms. Tracing the supply chain from ‘‘soil to shelf’’ is becoming a luxury market where highincome consumers are willing to pay a premium, Lee says.
That’s where Lewis Road Creamery is taking things. Headed up by former Saatchi & Saatchi advertising man Peter Cullinane, it initially developed a cult following thanks to its premium butte, before its Whittaker’s chocolate milk caused such a stir in 2014.
Lewis Road milk is now a permanent fixture on supermarket shelves and, despite what others say, Cullinane believes there is a taste difference between his company’s milk and its competitors. ‘‘Not all milks are created equal.’’
Lewis Road sources milk from organic dairy farm company Green Valley, which grazes herds on organic grass, free of herbicides or pesticides.
The herds also have no palm kernel expeller, or PKE, in their diets. ‘‘PKE not only taints the taste of milk but it is the byproduct of a palm oil production that is one of the worst environmental practices,’’ Cullinane says.
Herd composition also influences flavour, he believes. Lewis Road’s jersey and guernsey cows produce milk with higher fat content and subsequently a better taste and mouth feel.
Then there’s the issue of permeate. Permeate milk is ‘‘stretched’’ to gain the most volume by adding a dairy by-product into it, Cullinane says.
Lewis Road, along with other milk brands such as Meadow Fresh, promotes itself as permeate-free. ‘‘I don’t buy the argument that you are simply putting back in a natural byproduct.
‘‘If you want cheaper milk, that’s one way of delivering it. It is demonstrably more expensive to produce organic milk than nonorganic milk.’’
Fonterra says on its Anchor website that the word ‘‘permeate’’ is a term used in the dairy industry for the parts of milk that pass through – or permeate – the filter when milk is standardised.
‘‘We don’t put marketing claims like ‘permeate-free’ on our packs – because they could be misleading or confusing. Permeate is simply the water, lactose and minerals naturally occurring in milk, so all milk contains permeate,’’ the website says.